An Understanding
by SepticLovebite
Summary: She understood why he didn't come back.  She knew better than anyone why Daryl did what he did.  It didn't stop her being angry with him.


Author's Notes: Been meaning to have a "reunion" story or a couple of weeks now, thought I would get it online before the show does it differently. Thank you for reading. :)

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She understood why he didn't come back. She knew better than anyone why Daryl did what he did. It didn't stop her being angry with him.

Not for choosing Merle. She could never be angry with him for choosing his brother. Merle had no-one but Daryl. At least the group had each other. She tried to take comfort in that. There wasn't just him. There was more than him and her.

But he hadn't fought the issue. Hadn't tried. Rick had wanted to explain, play the conversation out to her, but she'd walked away. Didn't want to hear anymore. But she _knew _Daryl. Knew that he always got his way on the things that mattered these days. Merle mattered. He didn't try hard enough to get him to stay.

But she was angry not with Daryl, or at least not only with him. She was angry with Merle. Angry because Merle drove Daryl to leave. Daryl wasn't just protecting Merle from them, but protecting them from Merle and she wasn't so sure he would've even known it. The older man was never going to be able to live with them. They would never be able to turn their backs on him.

She had barely known Merle Dixon before, but already, she loathed him. Taking Daryl away from them all. From her. He was happy with them. Happy to be part of their strange little family. She knew he was. Daryl wasn't a man who felt obligated to others. If he didn't _want _to be with them, he wouldn't have stayed all that time. But he felt obligated to Merle.

That made her angry. It was irrational anger. One she would never admit to anyone. She had made it through to the other side. Believed herself wholeheartedly when said to Beth that she would tell Ed to go to hell if she saw him again. She had changed. Daryl wasn't there yet. That wasn't his fault.

But then, he was back. Saved Rick. It was like waking up from a nightmare. Waking up from a nightmare, only to find out that that waking up didn't change anything, not really. It only brought something new and frightening for them to face.

It was that fear that sent her gun flying up to eye level, shooting at Walkers through the fence as the three men made the dash through the courtyard, dodging bullets and rotten, grasping hands.

There were two fences separating them now and Carl opened the gates, let them into the holding area and padlocking the outer gate shut, there was one stray Walker and it lunged forward, but it stopped dead with an arrow to the skull, its head smashing the ground, inches from Carol's feet.

Carol pulled the arrow free with a squelch, tuning out the the yells that were kicking up. Glenn protested violently against Merle's arrival, slamming the inner gate shut and Carol watched Maggie retreat, away from Merle, away from Glenn. So she stepped forward and took the younger girl's place in front of the fence.

And there he stood. In the middle of Rick and Merle, the physical divide that stopped the two men from flying for each other. Both his brothers, just not in the same way.

Merle just laughed. A low rumble followed up with a smirk and she found the rage, the anger she'd felt over Daryl choosing this idiot, that he felt he had to chose him, rise up in her again. Her hand, of its own accord flew up, brought the gun to her shoulder and she pointed the barrel right in Merle's face.

She looked after her own, just like Daryl did.

And Merle, that bastard. He just _laughed._ Laughed raucously, right in her face. If it hadn't been for Daryl leaping into the line of fire, she couldn't have been certain that she wouldn't have shot him.

At that moment, she wished he hadn't come back. Because now they were all in that impossible position, between that rock and hard place, where they had to decide what they wanted more. Daryl with them, or Merle _not_ with them. They wouldn't be allowed both. Guilt waved through her for thinking it, for wanting to take the easy way out and not having to make the hard choices. But when it came to Daryl, she couldn't help it.

"Carol, put the gun down!" Rick was there too, hands outstretched, trying to appease her. She didn't understand, because last she heard, _Rick _had been the one to forbid Merle from coming to the prison in the first place.

"Why are you here?" She spat the question out, surprised herself with the direction in which it flew and the recipient seemed just as surprised. The gun might've been pointed at Merle, but the question was aimed at his younger brother. Daryl's eyebrows flew up into his hairline, eyes widened a little at her.

Carol could feel all eyes on her. The surprise in their gazes, that she was the one to raise her weapon first, aside from Glenn. After all, it was her that had always been closest to Daryl.

He eyed her uneasily, glancing down at the weapon in her hands and back up again. Merle had fallen silent, but he watched the two of them intently and Carol inwardly cringed at gaining his attention.

"You gonna let me back in?" Daryl's hand curled around the fence links and he looked at her uncertainly. Rick was talking to Glenn, calming the group down but Daryl ignored them. Ignored Merle.

Her anger dissipated as soon as he looked at her, strands of long hair brushing over his eyes. How could she be angry with him? He looked downright _sad._

"If he goes near Glenn, or the girls..._Judith_-"

"He ain't gonna do shit, I swear." He told her firmly, gave Merle a look as if to confirm this fact and Carol nodded.

Rick lead the way down the the length of the fence and Carl let them back in. Glenn could be heard still protesting in the background and Rick charged ahead with him in an attempt to appease the younger man.

Carol held back with Carl, watched him lock up the fences and turned back to survey the damage. The courtyard, it was now lost to the dead. They had even less space than they began with.

Merle was in a cell when she got into their block, fierce discussions held down the corridor. Merle stood at the bars, watched her as she walked past and she held his gaze, despite wanting to turn her head down low. She was done showing fear to people like him.

Besides, she wasn't frightened of him. Not like that. Nasty threats and violent turns? Those were nothing. She'd survived worse. What frightened her was the way he was with Daryl. What he could make Daryl do.

Daryl was in a cell when she caught up with him, hurriedly buttoning up a fresh shirt. Carol shouldered the gun, watched him from the door way as he turned back to his stuff on the bed, began sorting through it.

"He's my brother. Had t'go with him." He didn't look at her as he made this admission, kept fiddling with a shirt, folding it up haphazardly.

Carol stepped forward, took the shirt from him to fold it properly. She frowned when she realised it was torn completely in the back. "Of course you did. I would never have expected you to do anything else."

"So why you so pissed, huh?" He asked, although he didn't sound too angry. Anxious, really, if she wanted to pin an emotion on it.

She let out a sigh and sat on the foot of the bed, tugged the gun off and set it on the floor. Looked at the shirt in her hands a moment and cleared her throat, trying to come up with the best way to voice her thoughts. "I forgot, for a bit."

Daryl sat on the top end of the bed, put the pillow between himself and the wall and looked at her expectantly.

"I forgot what it was like. To have someone hanging over you like that. To make you feel like you aren't your own person."

She thought he might deny that the story of Merle and he was anything like that, but he remained silent, instead he brought the side of his thumb to his mouth and chewed on the skin.

"You have to do, what you feel you have to do. But, you have to remember the consequences. He can destroy what we have here far quicker than the Governor can. He's your brother, but he's not good for you." Carol gave him a thin, tight lipped smile.

Daryl just looked at her, before finally nodding. Something had happened, in his absence, between the two brothers. She didn't know what, but she could tell. For him to take her words so easily, without any rebuttal, she knew something had to have changed. Maybe he had reached the same place as she had.

"I didn't wanna bring him here, 'cause I knew what he would be like. Weren't worried so much 'bout his hide."

There was a commotion down the corridor, making both their heads snap up. Carol sighed and held his shirt up. "I can fix this up, when I get a minute."

They stood up together and gathered up their weapons and just as Carol made for the door, Daryl's hand came out and snatched up her wrist.

"We understand each other?" He looked at her almost eagerly.

She managed to work up a real smile and nodded. "Of course. We understand each other." He dropped her wrist and stuffed his hand into his pocket quickly. "We always have, I think."


End file.
